Sports equipment and facility disinfection

a technology for sports equipment and disinfection treatments, applied in the direction of disinfection, water installations, construction, etc., can solve the problems of limited effectiveness against superbugs such as mrsa, and ineffective on porous materials and fabrics

Active Publication Date: 2015-03-31
DD STEROZONE LLC +1
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Sanitation of sports clothing and equipment is attempted through laundering and disinfectant topical application, but is not wholly effective where MRSA is concerned.
Chlorinated solutions with and without ammonia are commonly used to clean and disinfect athletic facility rooms such as change rooms and gymnasia, but have only limited effectiveness against superbugs such as MRSA.
Vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) is highly effective when applied to smooth surfaces, but is ineffective on porous materials and fabrics.
However, use of ozone in a gaseous atmosphere for anti-bacterial purposes is problematic, because of its harmful medical effects (irritation of eyes and mucous membranes, pulmonary edema and chronic respiratory disease).
Moreover, ozone poses an environmental hazard.
Once a porous, soft surface such as carpet, drapery, porous material in ceilings and the like becomes impregnated with bacteria, it cannot be effectively disinfected using currently available agents and processes.

Method used

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  • Sports equipment and facility disinfection
  • Sports equipment and facility disinfection
  • Sports equipment and facility disinfection

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Control Swab

[0035]A swab was taken from the interior surface of an ice hockey goaltender's glove (blocker), which had been used by a 12-year old boy for three years. The swab was cultivated and tested, and the glove interior was found to be heavily contaminated with MRSA along with other, less deadly pathogens.

[0036]More specifically, a single pure colony of MRSA from the swab was inoculated to a Columbia agar plate with 5% sheep's blood. It was incubated at 35° C. in room air for 18-24 hours. From the plate, 4-5 isolated colonies were selected, and suspended in tryptic soy broth to achieve a 0.5 McFarland turbidity standard (1.5×108 cfu / ml) measured using a spectrophotometer. Inoculum was prepared by performing serial dilutions of 0.9 ml 0.85 NaCl broth with 0.1 ml of original 0.5 McFarland inoculum (4×10 fold) to give solutions of 10−1, 10−2, 10−3, and 10−4 cfu / mL. Incubation of these serially diluted solutions and subsequent counting of the resulting viable colonies determines th...

example 2

MRSA Control

[0039]A single pure colony of MRSA strain ATCC 33592 was inoculated and incubated as described in Example 1. Similar serial dilution of inoculums from 4-5 isolated colonies was conducted, followed by similar incubation and counting of reproducing colonies.

[0040]In this case, the reproducing colonies at 10−1 were too numerous to count. At dilutions 10−2, 10−3 and 10−4, the counts were 219, 39 and 4 respectively. This control experiment in comparison with Example 1 indicates that the wild strains of MRSA from athletic equipment are, if anything, more virulent than the standard, pure MRSA strain ATCC 33592.

example 3

[0041]The same ice hockey goaltender's glove as used in Example 1 was treated with ozone and hydrogen peroxide according to the invention, and then swabbed and tested for active reproducing MRSA as described.

[0042]An apparatus as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 4 was used. A chamber 100, closed while the experiment was in progress, contained near one end the hockey glove 102, supported in the chamber 100 with its open end 104 directed towards and disposed 2 feet from an electrical fan 106 with rotary blades 108. The chamber 100 was filled with a disinfecting atmosphere containing 180 ppm ozone and 3% hydrogen peroxide. The fan 106 blew the atmosphere weakly into the interior of the glove through opening 104. This was continued for 90 minutes. Then the chamber 100 was cleared of disinfecting atmosphere, the glove 102 removed, and a swab taken from its interior, inoculated, cultured and serially diluted as described in Example 1 above.

[0043]No viable colonies of MRSA were detecte...

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Abstract

A process for treating sports equipment and sports facility rooms to inactivate “superbug” bacteria such as MRSA, VRE and P. aeroginosa, which comprises subjecting the equipment or the room, and surfaces therein, to a disinfecting atmosphere which includes ozone at a concentration of 2-350 ppm by weight and hydrogen peroxide at an amount of 0.2-10 wt. %, at a relative humidity of at least 60%, and for a period of at least 30 minutes sufficient for an effective kill of the bacteria; and subsequently removing ozone from the atmosphere, down to 0.04 ppm or less.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is the national stage under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Patent Application No. PCT / CA2011 / 050542, filed Sep. 7, 2011, designating the United States, and published Mar. 15, 2012 as International Publication No. WO / 2012 / 031364, which application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61 / 380,825 filed on Sep. 8, 2010. The disclosures of the above-identified applications are expressly incorporated herein by this reference in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to sports equipment and sports facility disinfection treatments. More particularly, it relates to processes and systems for disinfecting sports apparel such as athletes' clothing and protective equipment, and sports premises such as locker rooms, change rooms and gymnasiums, of bacteria such as the highly infectious, potentially lethal Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), Psuedomonas aero...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Patents(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A61L2/20
CPCA61L2/202A61L2/208A61L2202/26A61L9/01A61L9/015A61L2202/16A61L2202/25Y02A50/30
Inventor SHANNON, MICHAEL EDWARDZOUTMAN, DICK ERIC
Owner DD STEROZONE LLC
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